Lone_Ranger

Buys said yesterday that attacking the downhills was part of their strategy. Looks like its a good one. Fixed typo

Awesome pics!! Great articles!! That pic of the singletrack zig-zagging up the hill just makes me want to get on my bike and go for a ride. Good luck for the big day today.

I read an article after last years Epic, where they interviewed a lady who did her first Epic. One of her comments was that its a lot more technical than you think and than it appears on TV. So its definitely not sunshine and district roads. Remember that what we (non-Epic riders) see is a fraction of a fraction of the total route.

Didn't Kulhavey come from a road background to begin with? I think I read that somewhere.

Choose the salad instead of the burger :ph34r: . Just kidding :clap:

Love the tube taped to the top tube. :thumbup: . SWAT system obviously not for him. Seriously though, the lines on that bike are gorgeous. Make me want to drop the R125k - R150k (probably) for this bike.

Didn't Burry Stander use these chains? I think I read somewhere that he swore by the Taya chains.

Love those Nissan socks!!!!

There's also the Vinyard races at Lourensford which coincides with the end of the Epic. Think its the last weekend in March. Nice race, with a nice vibe at the end. www.vineyard-races.co.za

Did my third Argus this year, and the first one without cramps. I've found that the energy gels seem to make my cramps worse. Also found that standing for short sections of climbs, especially when you feel the cramp coming on, seems to make a difference. Helped me get over Chappies and Suikerbossie.

Anybody know why the start was delayed? My group (DD) started about 4 minutes late.

The guy towing Anita was a monster. I finshed with him, as I was also riding for the Chaeil Campaign, and that dude was dropping me like a hot potato on the flats. Was good motivation for me to up my game over the last 5km, as I was not going to be dropped by a dude towing a trailer.

Had a similar experience. Found that I had to keep pedaling even downhill just to keep moving. Also had one gust push me about a meter sideways, lucky there was nobody next to me.

Agreed. This also applies to the finish. In a bunch / peloton finish all riders get the same time as the leader. The top three all got the same time for today's race cos it was a bunch finish.

Bloody autocorrect on iPhone. My sincerest apologies.

Did a 4:35, after aiming for 4:30. So pretty chuffed cos the wind was quite hectic. I was on my mtb with knobblies, next year might gun for a sub 4 on a road bike. I did have the pleasure of finishing quite soon after Arianne Kleynhans, only she was finishing her second lap of the course.

Cool. Will check them out when I'm there tomorrow.

How much for the Craft bib? At which store?

I find this to be quite a good indication of tire pressure. My gauge is that I should be able to compress the tire about half way in for the front tire and a bit less for the rear. Any more and the front gets all squishy around tight corners and the back feels "heavy" over hard gravel sections.

I suspect the City of Cape Town offers the Good Hope Centre at significantly reduced rates, as they are one the the Tour sponsors. If memory serves me correctly, the CTICC is operated y a private entity, therefore it's a bit more difficult to get reduced rates. Parking will be a bit of a mare at CTICC as well, as pointed out. 30 000 people (and that's only the riders) to get through in 3 short days is a fair amount. And when you consider that most people will go after work on Thursday or Friday the parking issue becomes even more prominent.

It's the conversion back to tubeless that's the pain. Either you have to do it yourself (with all the frustration that goes with that) or you have to pay another couple of hundred rand to have your LBS do it. Add that cost to the cost of slicks and tubes and you're closing on R600. I just don't think its money well spent for one race a year, but that's just my opinion.

If you're running tubeless its not worth the effort / cost. But this depends on the tire you currently have on. The Maxxis tires are fairly fast rolling on tar, so if you have those I'd say ride it with them on. I'm doing it on my 26" hardtail with Maxxis Ikon rear and Schwalbe Rocket Ron in front. Changed to slicks for the Burger last year, and it was definitely not worth the effort.

I decided to go the same route. Far cheaper than either buying a 650B specific frame or trying to fit 650B wheels with thin tires on a 26 inch frame. And you get almost the same effect.

I did a trail run in Constantia Valley, and they used this exact idea to market the 3 farms which we ran on. Gave discounted membership to the loyalty programmes, discounts on dinners, etc. Really was a great marketing idea.

This is exactly why I'm thinking twice about going 27.5. A high volume 26 inch tyre can give u the same circumference as many 27.5 tyres, as the difference in the wheel size is so small.